Report 874
Report #874 Skillset: Psychometabolism Skill: CellAdjustment Org: Nekotai Status: Rejected Jan 2013 Furies' Decision: Rejected. We are concerned about the potential for excessive regenerative capabilities with harmony monks here; We also do not like the idea of creating an indepedent balance - psionic skills should use psionic balances. Problem: Cell Adjustment (CA) transmutes 1,100 ego into 1,000 health through the Substratus. CA requires eq/bal to be performed, and will prevent eq/bal actions while in a 4s channel recovery. As such, CA is suboptimal for either hunting/combat. Its current application is to mitigate the health cost of BodyFuel. By comparison, Athletics Transmute converts over 1k mana into 1,000 health, requires but does not consume eq/bal, and can be spammed. Transmute does not carry the risk of ego burnout. It's also worth noting that Beastmastery Healing is far superior to CA. This report seeks to bring some parity between these skills by tweaking CA (while giving careful consideration to also balance against the ego bloat of illithoids due to their inner worm). Solution #1: Change CA from open action to locked channel defense with separate syntaxes for def up and ability use (i.e. see PortraitReading for a parallel mechanic). CA should work an independent balance timer of 4s - 8s. Additional consideration to also consume some willpower. Solution #2: Significantly raise the healing cap from 1k to 3k (maintaining the current health:ego cost ratio) since CA is seriously constrained by substratus recovery and cannot be spammed like Transmute during active hunting/combat. Player Comments: ---on 1/16 @ 21:17 writes: I wanted to pre-empt the comments by posting two counter-arguments. First, CA use under illithoid ego bloat should be balanced with skill cool down. In no way should CA surpass Transmute. Secondly, there is a general need for the skill, especially for Stealth monks. Harmony regen stack, combined w/Psymet & racial regen, imbalances this need. However, it is not the current etiquette to nerfs others, and the lack of active/productive Harmony monk envoys leaves this concern unaddressed. I don't believe this should constitute an argument against this report. ---on 1/22 @ 10:42 writes: Given all the points raised, esp. the no-nerf etiquette, I agree a solution is required. That said, I'm concerned what you're doing in order to balance Stealth monks, in comparison with Harmony, will backfire considering Harmony monks can take this too and be doubly happy for it. I can't offer any other solutions, though, so for now either solution has my tentative support. ---on 1/24 @ 15:27 writes: This does kind of open the door for some massive healing capabilities for harmony monks, beyond even the most defensive of guilds, namely healers. I feel like we would need to address the triple regen mantras first before we could push this through, though I do support it. I just have a hard time supporting it with the existence of particular balance issues. ---on 1/25 @ 11:50 writes: I was able to reach out to both Harmony monk Envoys (YAY!), and have encouraged them to review and comment. It will be valuable to get their insight given the concerns raise about CellAdjust + Harmony triple Regen. ---on 1/26 @ 00:05 writes: I support this, but yeah... something needs to be done with the Harmony triple regen because both together would just be ridiculous. ---on 1/26 @ 03:26 writes: Seems that either we 1) make it work more like transmute, 2) make it some heartstone knockoff, 3) make it more resist dmp likely, 4) make it a short-term out of phase ability (interesting possibilities and various ways this could be done), 5) phantom max health bonus, 6) passive grapple (see following comment), 7) same ability, but as a consumable defence (see following). ---on 1/26 @ 03:33 writes: Passive grapple: Make it a locked channel ability that has a certain chance that physical attacks passively afflict with entangle or additional offbal. Think as blow from attacker's hits the pysmet users bodydensity shifts and gives then traps. ---on 1/26 @ 03:45 writes: Celladjustment as a defense: Perhaps the smallest change which would still make the skill useful, would be to make it a defense. Put it up and then when you need it, you would consume the defence. Perhaps psi celladjust or just celladjust). This still keeps it a subpar transmute and as you need 1) bal/eq, 2) an open channel to put it back up, 3) PLUS it consumes the channel balance when redeffed, and 4) would need to wait until you recovered channel balance after putting the def back up, it should have little impact on game balance. Given all those restrictions it would not need to seem to need any additional timers added. ---on 1/26 @ 04:02 writes: I support solution 1. ---on 1/26 @ 07:29 writes: Solution 1 makes sense, but I second (or whatever) the concerns on harmony monks. ---on 1/26 @ 08:24 writes: Solution 1 supported, but if felt to be too much I think the tweak 'celladjustment as a defense comment' makes it slightly better than it is currently currently. ---on 1/26 @ 18:05 writes: As a side note, I don't support any of the 'solution 4s' suggested in the comments. A passive reactive grapple on monks is hiliarously overpowered. Solution 1 achieves the 'consume focus' style is solution 1 but less elegant/more clunky. ---on 1/26 @ 18:06 writes: Oops, remove the second 'solution 1' in my above comment ---on 1/26 @ 22:54 writes: Enyalida It wasn't my intent that any passive grapple would be on every hit, that would of course be too much. My thought was that it woould be a chance -- I do think it is an interesting mechanic.